1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a gasoline-water emulsion containing a minor amount of surfactants, suitable for use in a conventional vehicle engine.
2. Prior Art
The presence of limited quantities of water in the combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine is known to improve the engine operation in several respects. First, the water lowers the temperature of the combustion to minimize predetonation and thus effectively decreases the octane requirement of the fuel for a given engine compression ratio. The cooler burning also enhances the completeness of the combustion process, producing an emission with fewer pollutants. Finally, the water addition in the combustion process increases the fuel efficiency of the engine to substantially reduce the hydrocarbon fuel required for operation.
Water injection has long been used with jet engines to increase power during take-off and a variety of schemes have been proposed for the injection of water vapor directly into the combustion chambers of reciprocating and other engines and other fuel burners. Additionally, efforts have been made to form emulsions of water directly in hydrocarbon fuel so that the water may be introduced along with the fuel, in a controlled ratio, through the carburetion or fuel injection process. In addition to the other advantages obtained by the presence of water in the combustion chamber, gasoline-water emulsions are less volatile and accordingly safer to store and use than conventional gasolines.
Certain of the hydrocarbon-water emulsions previousy proposed contained relatively high percentages of water; i.e., 30 percent by volume or more, which may have been suitable for use in jet engines because of the high combustion temperatures involved, but were totally unsuitable for use with conventional automobile engines as the resulting emulsion did not have sufficient volatility to form explosive vapors at the lower combustion temperatures of an automobile engine and would effectively quench the explosion. Accordingly, one of the objects of the present invention is to provide a gasoline-water emulsion containing water in sufficient quantities to provide the desired improvement in the combustion process while still maintaining the volatility and explosiveness of the emulsion within a range which allows it to provide effective performance in a normal automobile engine.
Efforts have been made to obtain gasoline-water emulsions through the use of various surfactants and combinations of surfactants. Certain of the surfactants suggested must be employed in such large quantities as to themselves interfere with the combustion process, produce substantial polluting components in the exhaust, and raise the cost of the emulsion of an uneconomic level.